The CampOut and the Collar
by JudeDeluca
Summary: Roy Harper, a.k.a. Arsenal, takes his little girl Lian on a camping trip. When night falls he decides to treat her to a scary story, much to the shock of both when it ends.


Disclaimer: Titans owned by DC.

Yes, now I'm hooked on Roy and Lian. Part of me hates James Robinson.

* * *

2000 - The Harper Tent

"Having fun, princess?" Red-headed Roy Harper asked his little girl, Lian.

"Yes, daddy." Lian replied, smiling. The two were in their pajamas, inside of a tent. Roy had on black sweatpants and a red tank-top. You could see the tattoos on his left arm. Lian was wearing pink sweatpants and a Barney t-shirt her Aunt Dinah bought her. Her black hair was tied in a ponytail. Roy had a plain red sleeping bag and Lian had a pretty princess one. There was a lantern in the middle of the tent, illuminating it.

"I'm glad." He said, smiling. "I know I promised to take you camping, and then, well, this happened. " He tapped the cast on his left leg.

"It's alright, really." Lian told him.

"No, it's not. You know I hate it when I break promises." He explained. Roy really cared about his daughter.

"Like the time you said we were gonna see Santa at the mall with Granpa Ollie." Lian reminded him.

"Hey, we managed to get there in time." He said with mock hurt.

"Yeah, but then when Santa wasn't there and you went off to look for him and I had to stay with Granpa Ollie and then Santa came but when you came back he had to leave for the North Pole." Lian explained with childhood wonder.

"Uh, yeah…" Roy trailed off, remembering how hard it was to get into the Santa suit after he "borrowed" it from those surly mall workers.

"And then that time you said we were gonna see the Harry Potter movie on opening night but you had to go fight those yucky Nazi guys." Lian said again.

"Well, we did get to see it eventually, and I got you an autographed book set." Roy reminded his "ungrateful daughter".

"And then when we were gonna-"

"Okay, okay, little lady! We get the point, I don't always keep my promises. I'm sorry." He cut her off, looking a bit sad as he remembered some of the other promises he broke.

"It's okay, daddy. You're a supahero." Lian said, not wanting her daddy to be sad. He ruffled her hair and laughed.

"I don't know what I did to deserve you but it must've been something good."

Lian laughed.

"Your smore's okay?" He asked.

"Mm-hmm!" She said, as she sunk her teeth into an ooey, gooey, sweet and melty concoction of graham cracker, chocolate, and marshmallows.

"Well, be careful, I don't want you getting sticky." He said.

"I won't." She tried to say, if her mouth wasn't full.

"Good, cuz now it's time for my favorite part of camping." Roy told her. She noticed his eyes began to light up with childish mischief.

"Wha?" She asked.

CLICK.

The lantern in the tent was turned off.

CLICK.

"Scary stories." Roy said in a scary voice as he held a flashlight up to his face for effect. Lian gulped.

"Scary?" She asked.

"Yep. Grandpa Ollie always used to tell me scary stories whenever we went camping." Roy looked back.

_When he wasn't telling me about how everything I did was WRONG._

"Really?" She asked.

"Yep. So I've got plenty of horrifying tales for you, young lady, like…" He trailed off.

"Like? Like what?" Lian asked, getting a bit anxious and scared, but trying to hide hear fear from her superhero father.

"On second thought, I can't. You aren't ready. Maybe next year, princess." He told her.

"No! No I wanna hear it now! I'm ready, daddy! I'm not scared!" She begged.

"Nah, I shouldn't. It's probably too scary for you."

"No it isn't no it isn't!" She pleaded.

"No, no, this story's too scary for you. I guess we should just call it a night." He said as he began to zip up his sleeping bag.

"But -!" She tugged at his tank top and screamed.

"Okay! Okay, my little siren! You'll get your scary story. But don't blame me if you wet the sleeping bag, this story's pretty hardcore." He warned again with a wicked smile.

"I won't. I stopped wetting the bed last year." Lian said so proudly.

"I know. So, anyway…" He trailed off again as he held the flashlight up to his face once more.

"Yeah?" She whispered.

"There once was a girl named Susan. You wouldn't know it from the way she is now, but Susan used to be a very happy and outgoing girl. That was before Mary." He spoke in a spooky voice.

"Mary?" Lian asked.

"Mary." Roy confirmed.

"Who's Mary?"

"Mary used to be her best friend. They did everything together. They went to the park together, did their homework together, went shopping together. Best friends." Roy explained with a smile.

"What happened to Mary?" Lian asked as she curled up in her sleeping bag for safety.

"THAT's the scary part. It happened on a night like this." He said in a hushed voice.

"J-just like this?" She stammered.

"Exactly like this. For one thing, it was dark."

"Daddy, it's always dark at night." Lian told him.

"Oh, but not like this. The clouds covered the sky that night. No moon. No stars. There wasn't even any wind. All the sounds of nature had been silenced. All quiet. Just pitch black. You still want me to go on?"

"Y-yes." She stuttered. Roy felt bad about this, a little, but this was part of the camping experience, and with all the stuff Lian's seen in the superhero world, he knew she could handle it. Hopefully.

"You're a very brave girl, Lian. Anyway, Mary lived in this big, old house. It was just her and her parents. She didn't have any brothers and sisters. It was the weekend of Mary's birthday, and her parents were out of town."

"Her mommy and daddy didn't stay for her party?" Lian gasped.

"Nope. They had to work." He said, sadly.

"Poor Mary." Lian felt pity for the fictitious girl.

"You have no idea." Roy told her.

"Why?"

"Hold on, don't rush me. Storytelling's an art. And I am an artiste." Roy said in a fake French accent. Lian rolled her eyes.

"Daddy."

"Okay. Anyway, with her parents gone, Mary was going to be alone in that house. It didn't usually bother her. But she didn't like being alone on her birthday, so she invited Susan to come sleep over. This was the first time Susan had ever been to Mary's house before."

"I thought they were best friends?" Lian asked.

"Oh they were, but Mary's house was far away from all the others. It rested on top of a big hill. You wouldn't believe how long it took her to get school. Anyway, back on track, Mary and Susan were having a great time with the whole house to themselves. They ate pizza, watched movies, played loud music and even did a few prank calls."

"Like the ones you did to Uncle Dick's dad?" Lian asked.

"Kinda. Only their's weren't as funny as mine." Roy said with pride.

"So what happened?" Lian asked again.

"Well, it was getting late, but they didn't seem to notice. After the prank calls, Mary and Susan decided to get into their PJs, and then they were gonna watch another movie. Mary was especially proud of this robe she received as a gift from her grandparents. It was this really beautiful, wine red sleeping robe, and it had this furry collar. It felt so soft when Susan touched it. It was Mary's favorite gift." Roy stopped. "Are you sure you want me to go on, cuz this is where it gets scary."

"I, I'm not scared." Lian defended herself.

"Okay. So, they finished the movie, but when they shut off the TV and the lights in the living room, they suddenly felt scared. The house seemed to have gotten bigger, and emptier then it seemed. It unsettled the two girls. As they walked up the long, winding, creaking stairs, they suddenly had the feeling that there was something behind them. So they just kept running, faster and faster, until they finally got in Mary's room. They slammed the door shut. SLAM!" He shouted the last word and clapped his hands together to prove the point.

"*Gasps*!" Lian nearly jumped out of her skin.

"Now, in the safety of Mary's room, the two felt silly for having been afraid, and they started to laugh. Of course, there couldn't have been nothing behind them, right?" He asked his daughter.

"Right."

"Wrong. That was when… IT started."

"It?" Lian whispered as she leaned closer.

"The alarm clock on Mary's dresser read 12:13 when they heard this noise. It was faint, at first, like it was in some faraway part of the house. The noise, it went SSSSSKKKKKKKRRRRRIIITTTTCCCHH! The sound was like knives running across a stone wall."

When he made the sound effect, Lian tried to cover her ears.

"Wh, what was making the n-noise?" She asked, turning nearly white.

"They didn't know. Susan had figured that it was just the noise of some tree branch scraping against a window."

"But you said there was no wind." Lian reminded him.

"Susan realized that too. And then they heard it again."

"Again?"  
"!" He said. Lian gritted her teeth when she heard.

"Lian are you sure you want to continue?" He wasn't doing it to plead her on, he was being serious. Because he honestly didn't want to scar her for life.

"Finish the story, daddy. I know I'm safe with you." Lian told him. Roy sighed, and did so.

"This time, she thought maybe it was the lonely cry of some poor animal, hobbling around outside the house. But Susan couldn't think of an animal that could make that sound."

"Salad Head could prob'ly turn into an animal that makes that noise." Lian said.

"Lian. This was NO animal. SSSSKKKKRRRRRIIIITTTTCCCHHHH!" He did it again. It even hurt HIS ears.

"The sound was getting closer, and Susan realized that it was coming up to Mary's room. She turned to Mary, who looked just as scared as she did. Mary, however, got up from the bed and went over to the door."

"No!" Lian cried out.

"Yes. She told Susan that she'd heard that sound before, on nights like that. So, she unlocked her door, and told Susan that she was going to take care of it."

"Wow, Mary's brave."

"Braver then me?" Roy asked.

"No one's as brave as you, daddy." Lian fed her dad's ego.

"Smart answer. So, when Mary left, Susan locked the door behind her. She could hear Mary's frantic footsteps down the stairs. Thumpthumpthumpthu-." He suddenly stopped and paused.

"Why'd you stop?" Lian asked.

"Susan wondered that too. It sounded as if Mary had stopped at the bottom of the stairs." Roy told her.

"Why? What about the sound?" Lian wanted to know.

"The sound stopped. But Susan's fear was amplified that something happened to Mary. Then she heard the same creaking noises coming up the stair. But nothing frantic. Thump. Crrreak. Thump. Crrreak. Susan felt her heart beating against her chest. Why wasn't Mary hurrying up the stairs? The creaking noise of the stairs stopped, but the sound of slow, easy footsteps coming towards the room was heard. Susan couldn't think. What if it was Mary? She had to unlock the door." Roy finished.

"Well yeah." Lian said, shaking a bit.

"But, what if it was really the thing that had been making that noise?" He hypothetically asked.

"Was it?" Lian asked.

"Susan had to think of something. So she decided to open the door, just a little bit, and reach her end out. If she was able to feel the collar of Mary's robe, then she'd let her in."

"And if she didn't?" Lian asked as she leaned closer to her dad and whispered.

"…she could probably hide under the bed." He whispered back. Then he raised his tone again. "So, Susan, gathering up all her courage, began to unlock the door." He made the motion of turning a lock.

"No, don't-!" Lian called out.

"But she did." Roy answered in a ghoulish tone. "She opened the door and stuck her hand out into the inky black. Much to her relief," he sighed in content, "she managed to feel the furry collar. So she opened the door." He said, matter-of-fact.

"Oh good." Lian sighed as she laid back. Roy breathed in.

"She opened the door… and watched as Mary's HEADLESS BODY FELL INTO THE ROOM!" He shouted.

"Aaahhh!!"

CLICK.

Went the flashlight, total black.

"Aaaahhhhhh!" Lian continued screaming.

"Lian! Easy, easy, princess!" He clicked the lantern light back on and took Lian in his arms. He tried to hug away her fear and felt like a heel. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you that ba-"

"BEHIND YOU!" Lian screamed.

"Wha-?"

Roy turned his head to see the outline of someone against their tent.

And then that person fell on them.

"Whoa!" The person called. The lantern was shut off as the tent collapsed.

"Aaaaaiieeeee!!" Lian screamed.

CLICK.

The ceiling light turned on. Dick Grayson, Wally West, and the other Titans saw Donna Troy had fallen on the tent Roy had set up in their base lounge. After he broke his leg fighting Dark Nemesis, he couldn't go camping with his daughter like he planned. To make up for it, he decided to set up a pretend camping trip in the lounge, as to not disappoint his bundle of joy.

"Daddy!" Lian said as she looked at her Aunt Donna on top of her dad.

"Ow. What are you trying to do, break my other leg?" He asked his girlfriend as his daughter hugged him.

"Roy, I can understand you wanted to make it up to Lian when you couldn't really take her camping." Dick said. "But next time, do it in your part of the base and not the lounge."


End file.
